7:00am… Wake up, roll around in bed…
7:10am…Get up and go bathe
7:30am…Dress up. Tie, shoe and all…
7:45am…Run for the projector…
7:55am … Set up for class
My life is crazy I must say. It’s the beautiful hell I go through every day. Waking up is a pain. going to class, worse! I never really want to go, but I have to. Class–rep can’t stab class.
I get to class every morning trying to hold back my obvious panting after running up the stairs with the projector that I always pretend is super light.
I put on my polar. My roommates can tell you that’s not how I really look- or act. I finally sit down and by 8:00am, my greatest desire is to read the anatomy that my stressed body didn’t allow me read the night before.
Just as I’m about to start really feeling the anatomy, the questions start.” Class-rep, is the lecturer coming?”, “Class-rep, are we having practical today?”, “Class captain, I know you saw my message, are you coming for the program?”.
See, that moment is one of the most annoying. I can’t even look at them when I’m forcing myself to answer because I’m afraid that turning my head up will take a little too much of the little time I have in the morning.
Just as they leave me to go back to my books, it happens… The lecturer walks in and I have to answer another batch of questions I don’t have answers to. *sighs*
Imagine when you have to carry every one’s worries on your head when you still have to think of how to handle the anatomy that has piled up or how you’ll wash the lab coat you’ve been wearing practically every day. It’s always crazy how I’m always the last to leave the class on Thursdays because I have to wait to collect the attendance sheet my guys are taking forever to sign after which I have to run to the gross anatomy lab and lead dissection for my table- that horrid Formalin. What even pains is that my group members refuse to pay for the gloves I buy. Some of the pay sha!
I really try to be a normal human being. I try to talk to my course mates. I try to allow myself be attracted to girls. I try to involve myself in extracurricular activities. But the cloud of being a class-rep always comes back to veil my mind. I sometimes ask myself if I’ll continue the work till part V. I see my mates after class, reading as they please, eating peacefully at ‘Just Spices’ or just sitting around, chatting while I’m doing what? Returning projector, running around departments trying to get slides or submitting attendance, getting embarrassed by lecturers, thinking of ways to make life more bearable for everyone; all these when I should be reading. I dread our incourses. Especially since I’ve not been studying as well as the rest of the class.
It kills me when I strategize with other class-reps and come up with decisions on how to help my course mates only for them to turn it down, complain and point out everything bad about the idea, show me disdain. I could be using my time to help my life.
It breaks my heart when that girl sends me a message and I don’t read it or reply because I was too occupied or don’t know the answer to give and she comes the following morning saying “Bola, you’re now proud. You’re rude.” In my mind, I’ll just be like, ‘you won’t understand, there’s no point explaining.’
Some days, I just want to scream. Those days do come. Those days when I can take it no more. When I can take this noise no more. Their complains, their rudeness, their questions, their presence ……. No more. And I flip out. I get really dark on those days and I become really hated, even by myself.
But after everything I sit down to reason. “this is the beautiful hell I go through every day, and I won’t have it any other way”. Sure, they drive me crazy and at times puncture my heart. Sure, they do things that tear my ego apart. Sure, I have to sacrifice every day for them. But I won’t take it any other way. I’ll take it to the end.
I’ve found in their midst a family so precious. Through it all, I’ll be with them all the way. Sure some days I end up looking like bones when I forget to eat and all the work makes me look beat. But these wonderful people, close to my heart never let me leave without notice.
“Bola, are you alright?” “Bola, are you hungry?”, “Bola, well done”, “Bola, take care of yourself oh”
The questions start rolling in, the ones I can’t answer. But this time, my reaction, cheeks fluttered. Don’t get me wrong, I figurative, I don’t actually blush.
But I must say, being a class rep…. You can never really understand it until you face it.
Article by Bola Owate.
Article by Bola Owate.
(MBBS 200lvl
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